G.Skill DDR500 F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ 2x1GB RAM Review

Introduction
With today’s games and programs becoming more memory hungry, two gigabytes of memory has become a more viable option than ever before. What about performance and price you might ask? This is where the G.Skill HZ steps in with its low price and high bandwidth for overclocking. It currently outclasses anything in its price range! This is no surprise, as G.Skill is known throughout the world for its jaw dropping products, including some 2x512mb kits that were rated for DDR600! G.Skill was first started back in 1989 by a group of enthusiasts and has since then grown into a very well known company still targeting enthusiasts and overclockers at a competitive price. Let’s see if the HZ lives up to the company’s reputation.

Closer Look
The sticks come packaged in the usual hard, clear, plastic booklet with an eye catching background picture. The package is nearly indestructible, which calmed me down on whether it had survived the brutal shipping process. The package comes with, obviously, the dual channel memory and a short folded page about G.Skill and its process to give you, the consumer, the best memory along with the usual support information. Not much needs to come with memory.

The RAM itself comes covered in jet-black, glossy heat spreaders (fingerprints are easily left marked) along with a large 3-D G.Skill logo sticker on the front side of it. Subtle, but still gives it a fantastic look.

The sticks are pretty heavy and fractionally shorter (height-wise) compared to other sticks. The heat spreader is attached to the ICs by thermal pads and two clips to secure the heatspreaders. Thermal Pads are not the best way to transfer heat but it’s not bad either. Thermal pads, you guessed it, are pads that transfer heat, and are usually adhesive. It’s not a good idea to try and take them apart as that may utterly destroy the chips.

The memory is pretty, but is its performance just as good as its looks?